


Magic at your fingertips

by ChocolateFrogs98



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, F/M, Just every single character, from ouat and disney both, if i had to tag everybody we'd still be here next year
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-30
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-13 11:42:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21243518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChocolateFrogs98/pseuds/ChocolateFrogs98
Summary: Emma Swan was a strange child. The dozens of families she’d been into could attest to that. Lights would twinkle when she was scared and glasses would break when she was angry.Then a woman dressed in blue found her sleeping behind a dumpster and decided to tell her she was a witch.(Or the Hogwarts AU nobody asked for).





	Magic at your fingertips

**Author's Note:**

> I should probably stop posting even more WIPS and focusing on the ones I've already got but I couldn't help myself. Buckle up, because you're in for a long ride.
> 
> It's OUAT set in Hogwarts. You don't need to have read the Harry Potter books to understand the story but you should because they're awesome.

When Emma was little she used to imagine her parents loved her very much. She used to believe they would have taken care of her if they could, but something happened that made them leave her alone in the middle of the road. She used to hope they would appear someday, take her away from the foster families that didn’t care for her and they would love her like she never had been.

After all, if they didn’t care for her would they have left her with a handmade woollen blanket with her name stitched on?

But the years on the foster system, jumping from family to family, made her childish beliefs disappear like smoke.

Emma Swan was a strange child. The dozens of families she’d been into could attest to that. Lights would twinkle when she was scared and glasses would break when she was angry. Sometimes objects would move around the room of their own accord and there was that one time Mr. Thompson’s skin had turned blue when he was trying to hurt her.

That was probably why nobody wanted her.

Emma was a freak.

So she ran away, until the police caught her and then she waited some weeks, a part of her still hoping that family would be the _one_, and then she would run again.

That’s it, until a woman dressed in blue found her sleeping behind a dumpster and decided to tell her she was a witch.

Because of course.

Emma, just turned eleven, hadn’t believed her. She had outgrown fairy tales long ago. But then the woman (“I’m Professor Blue”) had offered to take her to a coffee shop and pay for _lunch_ if only Emma heard her out.

And Emma, cold, hungry and tired, followed her.

“I teach at Hogwarts,” Professor Blue said while they were making their way through the busy London streets. “Charms,” she added. “It’s a powerful kind of magic.”

Emma nodded though she kept looking around. The street was full of people and she really didn’t want anyone to see her walking with that madwoman.

“Where are we going?” Emma asked. “We’ve passed like a dozen coffee shops by now.”

Professor Blue blinked down at her. “Oh! We aren’t going to a coffee shop! We are going to a pub. The Leaky Cauldron. Is one of the most famous pubs in wizarding London, you’ll see. It’s also the entrance to Diagon Alley, which is part of our visit.”

The Leaky Cauldron, Emma could see, wasn’t all that great. It was dark and smelled of alcohol, there weren’t any electric lights and the only illumination came from the candles and through the dirty windows.

“Come on,” Professor Blue said. “Why don’t you go find a table? I’ll get us something to eat.”

‘Something to eat’ was enough food to feed an army, not that Emma was complaining. She hadn’t eaten in two days and free food was free food.

“Now, why don’t you let me tell you about Hogwarts, huh?” and Professor Blue got out a long, thin stick and waved in the air. In the table suddenly appeared the same strange letter Emma had been throwing in the trash for weeks (sensibly thinking it was some kind of prank) and Professor Blue cleared her throat.

“How did you…?”

The answer was simple. “Magic.”

Diagon Alley was something else. The shops were close together and street was very crowded for a Tuesday at noon in late October. But as Professor Blue had explained over lunch, it was the heart of the British wizarding community.

Their first stop was Gringotts, the bank. Instead of humans behind the counter, there were small creatures with pointy teeth and ears. Goblins, Professor Blue had said.

There they got out some money form a vault put aside for orphans like her, with no family to pay for their supplies and no money of their own. It made Emma feel like charity and she didn’t like that feeling. At all.

Professor Blue took her to the second-hand stores where they got her books and some equipment (“you will have until next September to read these books. I expect you to be prepared”). The robes she was supposed to get them some weeks before she left for school (“girls your age are always growing”) as did the Potions kit.

And then they stopped for a wand (cedar, phoenix feather core, ten inches, springy), which took a surprisingly long amount of time, and Professor Blue declared their shopping trip over. She handed her a train ticket and explained how she had to get into the Platform once the time came.

Then she asked her the directions for her current foster home. And that’s where things got interesting.

Ingrid Fisher seemed like a nice woman. But Emma had been around enough seemingly nice people to know it didn’t always match.

When Emma had told Professor Blue of her current living situation (had she really thought Emma was behind a dumpster for _fun_?) the woman had gotten them to the Ministry to fix it.

Since Emma know knew of her true nature it would be inadvisable to send her back to live with _muggles_. So the young girl had been sent to waiting room in the Ministry while they looked for a magical foster family to take her in.

At least the food from the Ministry cafeteria was good, not what Emma had been expecting. And they gave it to her for free, which made it even better.

It had taken them almost four days until they found Ingrid Fisher. Emma was just happy to finally leave the big Ministry she had already explored from top to bottom and sleep on a real bed.

Ingrid lived on Horizont Alley over her ice-cream shop. It was pretty popular with the families and she even let Emma help her paying her with ice-cream and some pocket money.

Emma had to admit Ingrid was pretty great.

She didn’t ask for Emma to see her as a mother («_Mother sounds so old, I’d like better to be an older sister_») and didn’t seem to mind her sky-high walls. She was smart, almost always knowing what was going on through Emma’s mind. After half a year, the girl started regarding the older woman as her somewhat family.

Maybe magic wouldn’t be so bad after all.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

“Are you excited?”

Emma looked up from the book she was pretending to read. “What?”

Ingrid smiled warmly at her from the other side of the kitchen table. “For Hogwarts,” she said. “Are you excited?”

“I guess,” Emma made a grimace that tried to be a smile. “Mostly nervous,” she said.

“I was the same,” confessed Ingrid. “I woke up at five in the morning,” Emma grunted at that. “and couldn’t eat a thing. I regretted it later,” she admitted. “It’s a long trip to Hogwarts to go without eating almost anything. And the trolley lady’s sweets are good but they don’t make much of a meal.”

The «that’s why I made you lunch» was left hanging in the air.

Ingrid cleared her throat. “But still, I don’t get why you’re so nervous. You already know a couple of your classmates.”

Emma’s face deadpanned. “I know Jasmine and that’s it,” she said.

Emma had been attending a sort-of-magic-primary-school, though it wasn’t very different than a _muggle_ one, in Horizont Alley with the rest of kids from the entire magical shopping district. There weren’t a lot of kids in Emma’s class, and most of them would keep going to that school (to help their parents on the shops or because the just didn’t have enough magical ability for Hogwarts) or go to other magical schools aside from Hogwarts.

Jasmine was the only one of her classmates to join her in Scotland. Her father owned a branch of successful, and expensive, luxury goods and they certainty could afford losing her most of the year.

“She’s nice and all but she’s kinda stuck up,” Emma said.

Ingrid laughed. “Well, with her family as rich as it is I can’t blame her. She even seems more down-to-earth than I expected.”

Emma just grimaced again and forced herself to eat some of the scrambled eggs in front of her. Ingrid’s face softened and the knot on Emma’s throat tightened.

“Don’t worry,” Ingrid said. “You’ll be fine,” she promised.

Emma managed to gulp down the bite. “Will you write to me?” she asked trying not to sound vulnerable and failing spectacularly.

“You don’t even have to ask,” she assured.

Emma had ended up in a compartment with Jasmine, who had been all too happy to see a familiar face, two enthusiastic redheads named Ariel and Merida and a moody boy who had been on the compartment when they’d arrived and refused to look out the window to even introduce himself.

«_Rude_» Emma had thought with a scowl.

“Oh, I’m a _muggleborn,_” Merida had said when the conversation had, inevitably, switched to their families. “Mah family was verra surprised when mah letter came.”

At first Emma hadn’t understood a word that came from Merida’s mouth due to her thick accent, but she was getting better.

“Well I’ve got a big family and all my sisters have already gone to Hogwarts so it wasn’t a big surprise. I think most of our teachers won’t be happy when they see another Waters around,” Ariel explained.

The three girls bit back a smile and Jasmine sighed wishfully. “I wish I had siblings,” she said. “My father does his best but it can get lonely. He’s the owner of the Agrabah line so he was a lot of work.”

Ariel’s eyes went wide. “Your father owns Agrabah?” she gaped at Jasmine. “Holy Morgana!”

Emma could see Jasmine starting to regret ever saying anything about Agrabah so she decided to help her out (also stopping the questions about _her_ family before they could even start). “Where do you think you’re gonna end up?” she asked. “Which house, I mean.”

That distracted Ariel enough and Jasmine sent her a grateful look across the compartment.

“Oh, I don’t know!” Ariel beamed excited. “I guess Gryffindor would be great, because bravery and stuff, you know? But the other houses could be awesome, too. I wouldn’t say no to Ravenclaw but I don’t think I’m smart enough to go there. And all that studying…” she shivered.

Merida smiled. “Me too,” she said. “As long as isnae Slytherin…”

_That_ broke the silent guy out from his brooding. “What’s wrong with Slytherin?” he snapped at Merida.

“Well… everybody says is th’ hoose where all th’ evil wizards go,” she said.

The kids blue eyes flashed. “My brother is in Slytherin and he’s the best wizard in the world!” he said. “Besides, you shouldn’t judge a whole house just by some people.”

“Isnae just _some_ people,” Merida muttered.

The guy glared at her but Merida remained silent, even if Emma could see she was dying to burst out in a screaming match with him. The fiery redhead looked at the other girls, probably seeking their support.

“My father is in Slytherin,” Jasmine said almost like an excuse. “Most of the greatest businesses are owned by Slytherins, in fact.”

Ariel also looked sheepishly at Merida. “A couple of my sisters are in Slytherin,” she admitted. “Though we are so many it would have been really weird if all of us ended up in the same house.”

And then they all looked at Emma, as if daring her to pick a side. “From what I’ve heard, there’s a lot of bad people who came out of Slytherin,” she started. “But I don’t think that means all of them are bad? Maybe it’s just that Slytherins have more potential to become bad?”

That didn’t seem to satisfy the boy, for he scowled at her and stormed off the compartment with a huff.

“Geez! I wonder what crawled up his arse and died!”

The three girls gaped at Emma and her crass language.

Even if Emma had become used to magic there were some things that would still surprise her from time to time.

Like a singing hat.

It was raining when the train had dropped them at Hogsmeade, the town right next to Hogwarts. Instead of taking the carriages, the first years had to follow a stern looking woman (named Maleficent of all things) through a dark path to the shore where some boats awaited them. And while the view of the castle was amazing from the water, Emma would have preferred a less wet and cold route.

Professor Blue had greeted them on the doors of the castle and guided them to a small room and then gave a speech about the Hogwarts houses, and the House Cup and the Sorting that Emma, truthfully, didn’t pay much attention to.

But Ingrid had already explained it all to her, and even Professor Blue had, too, on their trip to Diagon Alley.

Everybody started muttering nervously once she left and Emma had to admit the Sorting thing sounded a little painful. But Ingrid would have told her if it was something of that kind, right?

Professor Blue wasn’t gone for long and they followed her to a huge hall with a ceiling that looked to the night sky. And that was pretty cool.

And then the hat started to sing.

And everybody stared at it like it was the most normal thing ever.

When the hat finished its song, Professor Blue walked to stand next to the stool the hat was sitting on and unrolled a long parchment. “When I read your name you will come up here, I will put the hat over your head and, after it sorts you, you shall go to your House table. Now… Agrabah, Jasmine!”

Jasmine tried to mask her nervousness but she looked pale and her wide eyes denoted her fear. She walked up the stairs and remained some long moments under the hat, which tilted from side to side as if musing, until it shouted:

“RAVENCLAW!”

The Ravenclaw table burst into a warm applause for their newest recruit, and they did it again when the next kid, Arendelle, Elsa, also belonged to their house.

Baker, Celia, a short blind witch that confidently walked to the stool, was next. The hat sorted her in Slytherin after some seconds and the house cheered for her. One of the older kids jumped from the table to help her get to a free seat.

“Beasley, Adam!”

“SLYTHERIN!”

“Bell, Tina!” Professor Blue called.

Bell was a short blond girl who, as it seemed, gave the hat some problems, for it spend almost two full minutes thinking before placing her in Hufflepuff.

Blanchard, Mary Margaret was next, and she seemed excited more than scared. “HUFFLEPUF!” the hat proclaimed just barely touching her head.

Then there was Booth, August, another Ravenclaw, and a guy unfortunate enough to be named Fulbert Deforest, who was the first Gryffindor. De Vil, Cruella also had it bad in the name department and Emma wasn’t even really surprised to see her going into Slytherin.

“Dunbroch, Merida!”

The Scottish girl had just sat down on the stool, the hat barely grazing her head, when she was proclaimed a Gryffindor. For her satisfied smile, she was pretty happy with her new house.

After that Emma sort of spaced out, already nervous enough to pay any more attention to the sorting. She stared at the stool without seeing, her palms started to sweat and blood pounded on her ears.

(The Slytherin guy from the compartment turned out to be a Hufflepuff. Emma didn’t think he was nice enough to be a badger and she had hoped he would end in his loved house just so that Emma wouldn’t have any chance to end up with him).

(Because Emma knew herself and she knew Slytherin was not for her. Or Ravenclaw for that matter).

They got to the S’s and Emma thought she was going to throw up. One guy went to Gryffindor and another to Slytherin. And then she knew she was close.

“Svensson, Kristoff!”

“HUFFLEPUFF!”

“Swan, Emma!”

Her heart stopped. Emma took a deep breath and forced herself to go sit on the stool. She could do it, _she could do it_.

Professor Blue nodded at her in recognition and she lowered the hat.

«_Ugh_» she heard a voice say. Was that _the hat_?

“GRYFFINDOR!” it announced right after.

«_Well_,» Emma thought to herself as she stood up, her knees shaking with relief. «_That wasn’t so bad_».

The Gryffindor table was cheering for her and Emma sat down between a blond boy and a happy brunette.

“Hi!” she said. “Great house, isn’t it?”

Emma smiled. “I’m just happy to be in a house, you know?”

The blond boy snorted. “I also was worried that I would somehow fail the Sorting.”

“I don’t think that’s possible,” one of the oldest girls with a shiny badge on her tunic smiled at them. “There’s always a house for everybody,” she assured. “I’m Milah, by the way. Milah Gold. I’m the Head Girl.”

They all turned their attentions to the sorting after that. The hat called Hufflepuff for the girl under the hat and she scurried to her house, clearly relieved.

“Waters, Ariel!” Professor Blue read.

Ariel hadn’t even sat in the stool for more than a second when the hat put her in Gryffindor. Then came the last kid, Whale Victor, who ended up in Ravenclaw.

Professor Blue dispatched the hat and the stool while the Headmaster, Merlin Knight (it was rumoured he was a descendant for _the_ Merlin) stood up to say some words.

“I know you all must be starving, I know _I_ am,” he joked. “So all I’m going to say is «Let’s eat»!”

And suddenly all the empty plates filled with all kinds of food. Emma dug in, far too hungry to care for the people around her and ate in silence while Merida drilled poor Milah into all there was to know about Hogwarts. Some of the older kids also joined and soon they were explaining the secrets of the school to a bunch of very nervous eleven-years-old.

Around the time of deserts, things had calmed down enough. Emma was listening to Ruby Lucas, the girl sitting next to her, talk about her Grandmother when she spotted the Rocky Road half-hidden between a bowl of strawberries and some pudding.

She launched herself towards it at the same time her other neighbour did. They both stopped to look at each other with one hand on the platter each.

Emma blinked and the guy copied her. She narrowed her eyes, readying for a quick snatch when she realized the absurdity of the situation.

The guy’s lips twitched with amusement and he helped her lift the ice-cream over the strawberries towards them. Emma handed him a spoon and they shared a knowing look, then they both dug in directly from the platter.

“So…” he said. “You like Rocky Road, huh?”

Emma smiled at him. “It’s my favourite.”

“Mine too,” he beamed. “I’m David Nolan,” he introduced himself.

She grinned, her mouth full of chocolate. “Emma Swan.”

**Author's Note:**

> In case you were wondering these are Emma's students in her year:
> 
> Gry: Emma Swan, Ruby Lucas, Mulan Fa, Merida Dunbroch, Ariel Waters.  
David Nolan, Graham Humbert, Aladdin Saadi, Gaston Legrand, Fulbert “Le Fou” Deforest, Hercules Godfrey.  
Rav: Elsa Arendelle, Belle French, Aurora Rosenberg, Jasmine Agrabah.  
August Booth, Thomas Herman, Eric McKinney, Victor Whale, Frederick James.  
Huff: Tina Bell, Guinevere Metrass, Mary Margaret Blanchard, Tiger-Lily Fairchild, Megara Rohl.  
Robin Locksley, Kristoff Svensson, Philip Morris, Lance Lewis, Killian Jones.  
Sly: Regina Mills, Jacqueline Freeman, Cruella De Vil, Kathryn Meadows, Cecilia Baker.  
James Nolan, Jefferson Madden, Will Scarlett, Arthur King, Adam Beasley.
> 
> You're free to complain about the sorting but I'm not going to listen anyway (and Killian as a Hufflepuff is a hill I'm willing to die on).
> 
> Comment?


End file.
